Improving the security of wireless communications - Advice for you as a user - PTS-ER-2009:16

28/04/2009

Wireless communications are generally regarded as secure. There is only a small risk of encountering something malicious, but there are risks that you should be aware of. Following this advice will increase the security of your wireless communications. Security depends first on how you connect to the Internet and second the services that you use and what you do there.

General advice when using wireless communications

Regardless of your means of connection, there are general risks associated with using the Internet and being mobile in your communications. For this reason, you should follow this general advice:

• Activate your mental firewall.
• Treat your mobile telephone as a computer.
• Protect and make security copies of your data – you may lose it.
• Remember that others can see what you are doing.
• Keep operating systems and programs updated.
• If you deal with sensitive information, ensure that your communications are secure.

Specific advice depending on which connection (technology) you use

The way in which you connect is important, as the security of various wireless technologies differs. The connection is encrypted for mobile telephony and mobile broadband, which means that security is very high.

However, the connection is not usually encrypted in public wireless local area networks, which involves a risk that your communications may be monitored. Besides the general advice, you should also follow this advice when using public wireless local area networks:

• Ensure that you do not unwittingly communicate with the outside world.
• Only use networks that you know of and trust.

You can also increase security for private wireless local area networks, for example at home, by means of a number of security settings in your wireless router, namely:

• Activate encryption.
• Change the user name and password of your wireless router and disable the possibility of changing settings remotely.
• Change the name of the network and deactivate the broadcasting of your network name.

If Bluetooth is activated, your equipment is normally visible to others using Bluetooth, which leaves you vulnerable. You can improve security by adhering to the following advice:

• Only allow your mobile telephone and computer to be visible when you need them.
• Only accept files and connections from those that you trust.
• Be careful when connecting to other units.